West Bengal Central police observer for the Lok Sabha elections, Vivek Dubey, on Monday said that everything cannot be perfect after the Opposition cried foul over the Election Commission’s “mismanagement” in the deployment of Central forces in the eight parliamentary constituencies that went to polls yeste day.

The Opposition parties had gone hammer and tongs against the poll panel over the EC’s alleged failure to rein in “electoral malpractices” and reneging on its promise to deploy central forces in more than 98 per cent of booths in the fourth phase as promised earlier. Asked about the Opposition parties’ allegations, Dubey today curtly told scribes that everything can’t be perfect.

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“All the necessary steps had been taken and more than 96 per cent of booths had been covered by the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) in the fourth phase. Yet some loose ends need to be tightened. We are going to deploy 578 companies of CAPF with an aim to cover 100 per cent of polling stations in the fifth phase,” Dubey told reporters at the CEO’s office.

Earlier, the West Bengal Central police observer along with special observer Ajay Nayak, the CEO Ariz Aftab and other EC officials held a video conference with the DEOs over the post-poll violence and the scrutiny of the complaints lodged with the poll panel.

They also heard complaints lodged by a delegation of the West Bengal BJP led by Mukul Roy on the alleged “sloppy” deployment of Central forces by the EC and the ruling party’s resorting to “electoral malpractices” with impunity in large swathes of Asansol parliamentary constituency in the polls yesterday.

Coming out from the meeting, Mukul Roy alleged that some officers at the CEO’s office ~ alluding to the CEO and the Additional CEO ~ thought themselves above the institution and the EC was “shielding” them. Going a step further, the BJP leader said that the EC’s attempt to drive home the message the poll was peaceful yesterday was “misplaced” as the TMC miscreants targeted two Assembly segments out of the seven Assembly constituencies under one parliamentary constituency and took them under their control to take recourse to electoral malpractices like proxy voting, booth jamming and rigging.

Meanwhile, the final polling percentage in six of the parliamentary constituencies out of the eight that went to polls yesterday are as follows: Berhampore recorded 79.41 per cent, Burdwan (East) 84.75 per cent, Burdwan-Durgapur 82.57 per cent, Asansol 76.62 per cent, Bolpur recorded 85.70 per cent and Birbum polled 85.28 pc.

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